The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition is an international

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, solo (music), soloists, composers, conducting, conductors, musicologists or compositions. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are h ...

for young conductors, held biennially in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

History

The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition is named after the philanthropist

Donatella Flick Donatella Flick (born Princess Donatella Missikoff of Ossetia) is an Italian philanthropist and the former wife of Gert Rudolph Flick of the wealthy German industrialist Flick family. Biography Flick is the daughter of Prince George Missikof ...

, who founded the competition in 1990 to help young conductors to establish an international career. In 1996 the competition established a collaboration with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

. The winner of the competition, in addition to the cash prize and the concert engagements, becomes an assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for one year after the competition. The jury of the competition is formed of professional conductors and musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra, and has included names such as

Maxim Vengerov Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (; born 20 August 1974) is a Soviet-born Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor. Classic FM has called him "one of the greatest violinists in the world". Vengerov was born in Novosibirsk, the only child of Al ...

Tamás Vásáry Tamás Vásáry (; born 11 August 1933) is a Hungarian concert pianist and conductor. Biography and career Vásáry was born in Debrecen, Hungary, and made his stage debut at the age of 8, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major, K.107 i ...

Andrew Marriner Andrew Marriner (born 25 February 1954MARRINER, Andrew Stephen
''Who's Who 2 ...

Leif Segerstam Leif Selim Segerstam ( , 2 March 1944 – 9 October 2024) was a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist, and pianist, especially known for writing over 300 symphonies, along with other works. From 1963 onward Segerstam conducted a vari ...

Yuri Temirkanov Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov (; ; 10 December 1938 – 2 November 2023) was a Soviet and Russian conductor, named a People's Artist of the USSR. Early life Born in 1938 in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik, Temirkanov attended the Saint Petersburg ...

Yan Pascal Tortelier Yan Pascal Tortelier (born 19 April 1947) is a French conductor and violinist. Biography Born in Paris, Tortelier is the son of the cellist Paul Tortelier, and the brother of Maria de la Pau. Tortelier began piano and violin studies at age 4. A ...

Pinchas Steinberg Pinchas Steinberg (; born 13 December 1945) is an Israeli-German conductor and violinist. He is currently the Chief Conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Early career Steinberg studied violin in the USA under Jascha Heifetz and Jo ...

Daniele Gatti Daniele Gatti (born 6 November 1961) is an Italian conductor. He is currently chief conductor of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, artistic advisor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, music director of the Orchestra Mozart and chief conductor of the Staa ...

Sir Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English conductor and violinist. Described as "one of the world's greatest conductors", Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ran ...

and Carlo Rizzi. The first round of the competition happens at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

with ensembles of the college, and the final is at the

Barbican Hall The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and ...

, where the three finalists conduct the London Symphony Orchestra. The competition has received several awards and prizes, including the Pro-European Foundation for Culture, the European Project Award for Music, and the Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize for its continuing encouragement of young conductors.

Winners

Winners of the competition are: *

Andrew Constantine Andrew Constantine (born William Andrew Constantine, 30 December 1961, County Durham, England) is a British conductor. He is currently the Music Director of both the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (appointed 2009) and the Reading Symphony Orchestra (ap ...

(1991) * Timothy Lole (1992) * Emmanuel Plasson (1994) * Tommaso Placidi (1996) * Paul Mann (1998) *

Pablo González Bernardo Pablo is a masculine given name, the Spanish form of the name Paul. People * Pablo Acha (born 1996), Spanish archer * Pablo Alarcón (born 1946), Argentine actor * Pablo Alborán (born 1989), Spanish singer * Pablo Aimar (born 1979), Argentine ...

and

François-Xavier Roth François-Xavier Paul Roth (born 6 November 1971) is a French conductor. Biography Roth is the son of the organist Daniel Roth—the two share the same first name. His brother Vincent is a violist. Before turning to conducting, he was a flauti ...

(2000) * Christophe Mangou (2002) *

Fabien Gabel Fabien Gabel (born 10 September 1975) is a French conductor. Biography As a youth, Gabel began trumpet studies at age 6. He continued his music education at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he won a first prize ...

(2004) * Michal Dworzynski (2006) *

David Afkham David Afkham (born 1983) is a German Conducting, conductor. Biography Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, Afkham began violin and piano studies at age 6. At age 15, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, where he was a piano stude ...

(2008) * Clemens Schuldt (2010) * Alexandre Bloch (2012) *

Elim Chan Elim Chan (; born 18 November 1986) is a Hong Kong-born conductor. Biography Chan was born in Hong Kong. Birth year of 1986 is based on age 28 in Dec 2014. As a youth, she played cello and piano and sang in choirs. Chan attended the Good Hope S ...

(2014) * Niklas Benjamin Hoffmann (2016) *

Felix Mildenberger Felix Mildenberger (born 1990 in Wolfach) is a German conductor. He has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Filarmonica Teatro Regio di Torino from 2022. Since 2014 he has been principal conductor and artistic director of the Sinfonieor ...

(2018) * Julio García Vico (2021) * Nicolò Umberto Foron (2023)

References

External links

Donatella Flick Conducting Competition
Music competitions in the United Kingdom Conducting competitions 1990 establishments in England Recurring events established in 1990 Flick family London Symphony Orchestra Events in London {{music-event-stub